Lunch at my family home was often an amusing affair, a disturbingly brown-looking bottle of Hock or ‘Lieb’ would make a cameo at the table, my father decided it would go splendidly with the unlucky fowl positioned ready for carving. Champagne for us was not often on rotation unless we had a significant birthday, wedding or landmark moment in the family. This is how many of my friends also describe wine at home (most without the frightening German wine but some with a splendid bottle of, likely oxidised, white Burgundy or unremarkable white claret) but my father was a man of specific taste – only now would I chuckle on my fathers, much-made-of, self-appointed ‘sophistication’.
I began working at Champagne Pol Roger nearly a decade ago (after a brief stint at GH Mumm and Perrier Jouet, only notable purely for the fact that I met my long-suffering wife whilst working there) and it is only at a house like Pol Roger that you notice the small, unique things about Champagne. The time honoured, labour-intensive and quality obsessed ‘family’ working so hard to produce a bottle of sparkling wine which means so much to so many, not least to the Pol Roger family as they put their own name to the wine.
If you are to drive from Paris to the Champagne region it is approximately 150 kilometres east of Paris, the Appellation covers 34,000 hectares of vines (34,305 Ha planted) 320 Villages, 17 Grand Crus, 42 premier crus. This makes up roughly 3% of the vineyard land in France, Champagne remains around 1/3 the size of Bordeaux and home to one of the most fiercely protected regional identities in the world. In the region of Champagne 289 large houses own only 10% of vineyards but account for 66% of sales. Champagne grew in popularity in the UK for a number of reasons but principally the 1861 Anglo/French trade treaty meant French wine had again become affordable in Great Britain. Sherry was often the aperitif of choice and now it had stiff competition. In 1849 a railway link to Epernay from Paris opened the gateway to London conclusively and the rest as they say, is history. The wines of Champagne were introduced to the Court of Versailles by the Marquis de St Evremond who also introduced champagne to London society (prior to the 1861 treaty) after he was banished to Britain in 1662.
Great Britain has an exciting and well documented, historical affinity (Pol Roger was first sold into London from 1855) and highly regarded 1874 vintage sealed the reputation of the house, in 1877 it became the wine of London at the time, catapulting Pol Roger into many of the most influential Gentleman’s clubs in London. Never has a country looked to a wine from one specific region so much, to celebrate; be it love; found, lost or unrequited….in fortification for dangerous deeds or as justification for the defence of sovereignty (“Remember, gentlemen, it’s not just France we are fighting for, it’s Champagne!” Sir Winston Churchill ). In recent history no other wine has featured at virtually every defining moment around the world than Champagne, over the last few decades sadly, we have lost sight of the fact that this wine is the product of one of the most technically advanced natural processes and harvested with the knowledge that the smallest hailstorm or late frost could mean ruin. The wine buying public just do not know how much time and effort goes into making each bottle of Champagne and what is takes to craft a cuvee within the regulations for this meticulously stringent region. Even those who do not drink alcohol must understand the connotations of just opening a bottle of Champagne. From AD 455 when Attila the Hun was pushed back from Chalons-Sur-Marne, various civil uprisings, the Prussian war and more recently two of the most violent and all-encompassing global wars; Champagne seems to have always been fought over or through. Right now it is at the crossroads of reaffirming its unique identity, in danger of being too well known for image and not for quality.
Secondary fermentation (prise de mousse) is Champagne’s most unique element, a young pharmacist, André Francois from Chalons Sur Marne discovered the exact amount of sugar to induce a secondary fermentation and subsequently creating the most famous sparkle of all. André died in 1838 shortly after publishing the formulae but soon Champagne was to be embedded as the heartbeat of the ‘wine industry’. Champagne’s grapes remain ‘hand-picked’ by back-breaking labour, the pressing of the grapes is controlled (often, now) by electronically inflatable ‘bladders’ pressing slowly and carefully, teasing the right amount of juice out of each grape without undue or excessive exposure to oxygen which can cause fault in the wine. The sparkle to which we are all drawn, is produced naturally, not added or injected, it is the by-product of the fermentation process. Exacting details were needed, Champagne has circa 6-bar of natural pressure in each bottle, each Champagne bottle needs to be almost twice as thick as the normal, non-sparkling bottle of wine, which of course incurs more expense.
When the dead yeast cells giving off the Carbon Dioxide re-appear, floating in the bottle, they need to be disgorged, gently, after being used by many to help add a level of complexity to the wine (this is called lees ageing). This technical disgorgement process requires a skill and precision to lose the ‘expired yeast’ but try to retain the physical volume of wine. Pol Roger remains one of the very last houses to hand-turn (remuage) over 60, 000 bottles a day (for around 4-6 weeks) of all of its cuvees to induce the yeast, gently, to the end of each bottle, closest to its closure. Over this period of moving bottles from the horizontal to the vertical whilst turning them ‘just the right amount’ only very few men or women remain as masters of their craft (a Pol Roger senior remeur, Pascal, once turned 114, 000 bottles in a day).
It is this kind of relationship from human-hand to each bottle that makes Champagne so special, so special that it must be shared on the great occasions, not because it is expensive but because of the history, the style, the laughter, the effort, the patience and the human care that has gone into each bottle. Great Britain has one of the longest histories celebrating with, and drinking Champagne, a prolonged and seemingly unquenchable love affair. In an age of the conscience on alcohol levels, 12.5% seems refreshing, the wines of Champagne remain largely in balance with alcohol and the racy-acidity found as its back bone, keeps us thirsty for more.
Champagne can age (and does) but often it is at its best (in my opinion) within 25yrs of being purchased, each bottle of Non-Vintage (a wine with a base vintage year but can be blended with other years held back by the house to achieve a specific style the house prefers) must age for a minimum of 15months in the cellars and each vintage bottle of Champagne must age for a minimum of 36 months and be of one particular vintage e.g. 2002 only.
It’s fashionable to ‘bash’ what we think we know in favour of the new ‘darling’ but I think this historical relationship seems to have been partially forgotten by a new generation, by all means talk-down the wine if you dislike it for its style or flavour profile but not for its apparent image. Maybe it’s time we took a look again at Champagne and understood its price-tag for the human involvement and labour and not just the feeling you may be buying into a lifestyle.
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